# How to use filters? Do we need them?



## Wind Smoke (Jul 9, 2012)

Hey guys.
So I have a question. Recently I found Dr. Plumb's filters and don't know how to use them. I searched on the web and they said that they are 9mm filters (they don't fit my pipe), but I don't know, shall i use them and for what are they? Shall we inhale after using them or how? Is there pipes that don't need filters (or already built-in?)?
So here is my pipe. Please check it out and tell me do I need 'em?


----------



## Michigan_Moose (Oct 11, 2011)

I remove any filter that any pipe I own may have. I do not choose to use them, I would say most others do not either.

Just my 2cents


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Some pipes take 6mm filters, some 9mm. Size of the bore, like ammunition. Not sure that pipe of yours even takes a filter, but maybe the 6mm. Hard to tell...but in any case, you don't need a filter at all. You don't need to inhale pipe tobacco either. Maybe a couple of hits with PA or Five Brothers in the early going, since you can actually roll cigarettes with those, but in general, only retrohaling through the nose.


----------



## Wind Smoke (Jul 9, 2012)

Ok, so why people use them? I watched a video on youtube and one guy was speaking about 9mm filters. And he said that they are awesome. I just dream why do we need 'em? Before, I thought that if you have a filter in your pipe you have to inhale like cigs, but now, i've got it.


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

I think the main reason people use them is because they smoke the wet aromatics a lot. Somebody has to be smoking all those aromatics! :lol: Aromatics tend to fill the stem with condensation from the smoke more than straight Virginias or burleys, or combinations thereof, because aromatics frequently have a lot of propylene glycol that prevents the tobacco from drying out. The filter soaks up the juice and keeps it out of your mouth. Most cobs use a 6mm filter, but I don't bother with them.


----------



## Blue_2 (Jan 25, 2011)

I only use 9mm filters in my Vauen Prince. It started because I lost the adapter, but I still like them in that pipe. As previously stated, they tame the steam from moister tobacco. They also keep debris out of your mouth. 

The downsides are a noticeable difference in flavor (not always a bad thing though) and the inability to get a pipe cleaner through.

I believe the German market accounts for the "Lion's Share" filtered briar pipe sales, but not all.


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Actually, I have two pipes that take the 9mm filters and I do have some of the balsa jobs, but I don't use them.


----------



## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Wind Smoke said:


> Hey guys.
> So I have a question. Recently I found Dr. Plumb's filters and don't know how to use them.


1. Hold pipe in left hand, filter in right hand.
2. Put pipe down on table.
3. Walk to trash can. Carefully place filter in trash can. If it doesn't fit, don't force it!
4. Walk back to table. Enjoy pipe.


----------



## Irfan (Dec 18, 2011)

I got a German estate pipe that takes 9mm filters. I've always read comments about filters being useless, etc, etc, and certainly didn't like them in a cob, nor do I like stingers. But I thought I'd give them a chance in this pipe, just to see. And I actually quite like it. It's by no means my favourite pipe, but not the least, either. I won't deliberately go out looking for another one, but I will keep a bag of Dr Perl 9mm filters for this one. Yes, it softens the flavor slightly and makes it a cooler, "safer" smoke. I find I sometimes reach for it when I'm immersed in work on the computer, it allows me to be thoughtless about smoking. If you have a pipe designed to take filters, don't automatically assume that because most people on puff think they are useless, you have to agree. Try 'em yourself and make up your own mind.

I usually smoke Tuggle Hall in it, which is NOT a moist aromatic. I guess if I smoked that kind of tobacco at all, I'd save this pipe for that. But I only smoke OTC aromatics about once a month, just to reaffirm that I really don't like them that much, I'm not just blindly following everyone else saying they don't like them. Pipe smoking is one area of life where you shouldn't be swayed by peer group pressure.


----------



## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Irfan said:


> Pipe smoking is one area of life where you shouldn't be swayed by peer group pressure.


I haven't found the area of life where you _should_ be swayed by peer pressure, so I'll have to go along with you!


----------



## Irfan (Dec 18, 2011)

MarkC said:


> I haven't found the area of life where you _should_ be swayed by peer pressure, so I'll have to go along with you!


Hehe. No, good point.

My gf came out with a funny line this morning that is worth repeating in this context. She said she didn't like ultra-mild cigarettes, I asked her why. She said "They are for people who fall for _both_ kinds of advertising."


----------



## Granger (Jul 24, 2010)

I posted at length here some time ago about going to Germany and finding a pipe with a filter. As a meet smoker you don't need a filter, but the Germans love them. The majority of German pipes have them.

So why? They cool the smoke, they take out moisture, you don't get bits of tobacco in your mouth, and I find it awakes my taste buds a little for food and drink. When you transition to a filter tobacco can seem weak (Smoke a regular filtered cigarette then a lucky strike you will see), but you eventually can develop a taste for it and find new notes you missed in the past. I find my tobacco is sweeter with a filter.

I use Vauen Dr. Pearl and I also order filters made from Meerschaum off eBay.


----------



## Irfan (Dec 18, 2011)

Granger said:


> I posted at length here some time ago about going to Germany and finding a pipe with a filter. As a meet smoker you don't need a filter, but the Germans love them. The majority of German pipes have them.


Yes, I always associated filters and stingers, especially, with cheap, crappy basket pipes, but almost all pipes made for the German market have them, including the top end ones. Upshall make pipes without filters for the British and American markets, but apparently they also make filtered models for the Germans.


----------



## laloin (Jun 29, 2010)

filters also tame really strong tobacco likes ropes and plugs. I used to use a use a filter for my cob. But after I devolped my tastes for different tobaccos. I just dumped the filter. Only use them for strong blends like ropes and plugs just to tame the Lady N


----------



## x6ftundx (Jul 31, 2008)

yep, I also agree with everyone. Just throw them away...


----------



## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Irfan said:


> Yes, I always associated filters and stingers, especially, with cheap, crappy basket pipes, but almost all pipes made for the German market have them, including the top end ones. Upshall make pipes without filters for the British and American markets, but apparently they also make filtered models for the Germans.


Yeah, if S. Bang is releasing filter pipes, it's hard to think of them as just a cheap pipe item.

I think my rabid dislike of filters (other than the fact that it would have never occurred to me to use a filter my first time around with a pipe in the seventies) is my experience when I was trying to get started in '09 with a Dr. Grabow and two MMs. You know how badly you can over puff when starting out. I was smoking the MM one day, and this real odd flavor came through. Very flavorful, but harsh and nasty. After I took the pipe apart, I realized I'd smoked about 15% of the filter...


----------



## BrunoBlack (Jul 9, 2012)

I always remove filters and sling them in the bin. Its simply pandering to the idea that Baccy will kill you and this makes it safer. Ie pipe makers trying to make the product more warm and fuzzy. 

IMO yes smoking is most likely bad for you, but as far as will these 'save you' ......not a chance.

I assume like the rest of us you like the flavours essence of a pipe. Why suck that through a wad of bleached paper?


----------



## Spectabalis (May 17, 2010)

Well, I'm swimming against the tide by the look of it. I now mainly smoke pipes with 9mm filters and think they are great. They cool the smoke and reduce moisture and I NEVER experience any bite, no matter which tobacco I smoke. I am mainly a Virginia man, FVF, BBF etc and find they don't detract from the flavour one bit. I have 15 pipes and 12 of them have 9mm filters. Wouldn't be without them.
Regards, Roger.


----------



## Wind Smoke (Jul 9, 2012)

Thanks for your opinions guys!
Before, like 5 years ago i was collecting pipes. i had just around 21 pipe. from them 3 were lost, one was gifted to my friend and the rest is left in my old house. Tomorrow I'm going to take a few of them that fits 9mm pipes and give a try to them


----------



## otto (Dec 1, 2007)

I have a lot of Savinelli pipes with 6mm balsa filters. I think they are great, they eliminate "gurgling" so you don't need to keep ramming a pipe cleaner down the stem to eliminate moisture and I never touch "Aromatics". The balsa filters do absolutely nothing to affect the taste, strength, nicotine level etc. They only collect moisture.


----------



## BrunoBlack (Jul 9, 2012)

Spectabalis said:


> Well, I'm swimming against the tide by the look of it. I now mainly smoke pipes with 9mm filters and think they are great. They cool the smoke and reduce moisture and I NEVER experience any bite, no matter which tobacco I smoke. I am mainly a Virginia man, FVF, BBF etc and find they don't detract from the flavour one bit. I have 15 pipes and 12 of them have 9mm filters. Wouldn't be without them.
> Regards, Roger.


Fair enough, glad you enjoy them. We all have our opinions, that's what makes the world so varied.

Do you not find they are harder to draw however. My brother uses them and he seems to be re lighting a lot even with an easy to smoke mix like petersons springtime 2012 which is really good/even burning blend.


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

BrunoBlack said:


> I always remove filters and sling them in the bin. Its simply pandering to the idea that Baccy will kill you and this makes it safer. Ie pipe makers trying to make the product more warm and fuzzy.


The Great Nicotine Paranoia that reached hysterical levels in the 40s/50s still has inertia. This lead to stingers and Medico filters and all manner of anti-nicotine contraptions. As poor as my taste buds and olfactory bulb are, I still taste paper in paper filters and really hate it -- like smoking a newspaper. Now, the balsa filters don't seem so horrible, it's just that its a hassle. My Savinelli takes one of those 9mm sticks, but I smoke it without almost all the time. Every once in a while I pull out a filter and give it a go; it's much better than paper, but it makes me feel guilty chopping down balsa trees to no real purpose.


----------



## BrewShooter (Mar 17, 2011)

The filters are not there so you can inhale, they do work a treat on moisture. Can't pass a pipe cleaner, but I don't usually need to, as the filter absorbs the moisture I would have been soaking up with the cleaner. I have other ways of dealing with moisture anyway and don't even bother with pipe cleaners until I'm done and actually cleaning the pipe. If the pipe is designed for a filter I use one. If it isn't, I don't. The balsa filters seem to be the best of the ones I've tried, though the 9mm filters aren't too bad. I can take or leave the Dr. Grabow or Medico filters, but don't have any great hatred of them.

The main point of this discussion whenever it comes up is, try it for yourself. You might like them, you might hate them.


----------



## BrewShooter (Mar 17, 2011)

freestoke said:


> Every once in a while I pull out a filter and give it a go; it's much better than paper, but it makes me feel guilty chopping down balsa trees to no real purpose.


The purpose is to make a filter. Chopping them down for no real purpose would look more like a guy with an axe falling a tree, leaving it and then wandering off to go water skiing or something.


----------



## Magnificent_Bastard (Feb 29, 2012)

A few comments have been made about the German market and pipe filters. Was wondering, does anyone know if this is possibly some sort of state-mandated thing, or just a cultural preference of the Germans? 

I have a handful of pipes that can accept filters, but have never used a filter yet. I understand the moisture issue with aromatics, but what about my copious amounts of drool? There are occasions where I wish the stem had a spit valve like a trumpet. 

Sorry for the visual. Carry on.


----------



## BrunoBlack (Jul 9, 2012)

Magnificent_Bastard said:


> A few comments have been made about the German market and pipe filters. Was wondering, does anyone know if this is possibly some sort of state-mandated thing, or just a cultural preference of the Germans?
> 
> I have a handful of pipes that can accept filters, but have never used a filter yet. I understand the moisture issue with aromatics, but what about my copious amounts of drool? There are occasions where I wish the stem had a spit valve like a trumpet.
> 
> Sorry for the visual. Carry on.


I tend to favour pipes with separate bowls, lately. Just unscrew the bowl mid smoke and empty vapour/drool, screw back on and keep smoking. See likes of the Falcon continental for an example.

As for filters. Open the pipe, carefully remove filter, checking for damage then sling in the bin.


----------



## Blue_2 (Jan 25, 2011)

Magnificent_Bastard said:


> A few comments have been made about the German market and pipe filters. Was wondering, does anyone know if this is possibly some sort of state-mandated thing, or just a cultural preference of the Germans?


To the best of my knowledge, it's cultural.


----------



## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

I actually use the filters for the pipes that were designed to use them. I'm still trying a debating if I like them. The big plus that I have found is that is absurbs alot of the moisture and for auromatic tobaccos there is alot of that.


----------



## Irfan (Dec 18, 2011)

All this discussion makes me want to try Bayou Morning with my filtered pipe. I don't know what happened with that tobacco, when I first tried it, I loved it. Now it seems too sharp, too peppery, too strong. I bought 32 ounces, now I'm hoping my tastes will change again, and we'll fall back in love. Maybe the filter will tame it enough. That or the calabash, which I haven't used for a couple of months now.


----------



## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Irfan said:


> I bought 32 ounces, now I'm hoping my tastes will change again, and we'll fall back in love.


Yeah, I've noticed this always happens _after_ you stock up!


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Irfan said:


> All this discussion makes me want to try Bayou Morning ...Now it seems too sharp, too peppery, too strong. I bought 32 ounces,


Be happy it isn't Bayou Morning* Flake*. :lol: (I love BMF. :tu)


----------



## Spectabalis (May 17, 2010)

BrunoBlack said:


> Fair enough, glad you enjoy them. We all have our opinions, that's what makes the world so varied.
> 
> Do you not find they are harder to draw however. My brother uses them and he seems to be re lighting a lot even with an easy to smoke mix like petersons springtime 2012 which is really good/even burning blend.


Hi Brian.
To be honest, I don't notice much diference with the draw, whether smoking flakes or ready-rubbed. I must point out though that I've never prefered a really open draw.
Roger.


----------



## Ken Hastings (Jun 28, 2012)

My Petersen Rhodesian uses a 9mm filter. Smokes and draws just fine IMO. If that OP's pipe takes filter which is may not it would me a 6mm balsa. A good B&M will give you one for free, mine in Austin did when I bought my first filter pipe.


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Ken Hastings said:


> If that OP's pipe takes filter which is may not it would me a 6mm balsa. A good B&M will give you one for free, mine in Austin did when I bought my first filter pipe.


You'll need more than one if you use filters. The balsa ones don't go more than 4 bowls without getting disgusting.


----------



## Ken Hastings (Jun 28, 2012)

freestoke said:


> You'll need more than one if you use filters. The balsa ones don't go more than 4 bowls without getting disgusting.


agreed but you only need one to see if it fits


----------



## Irfan (Dec 18, 2011)

freestoke said:


> Be happy it isn't Bayou Morning* Flake*. :lol: (I love BMF. :tu)


If you're ever passing through Jakarta, we can do a trade of some sort. Ha. I have some BM*F,* too. I think I like it better than the BM. But a few ounces will last a looooooong time. Maybe I'm just an unimaginative smoker, just give me, say, a hundred pounds of Tuggle Hall, I could probably survive if I never bought any other tobacco again.

Mark, a while back you recommended Escuado, yes? Just got off YM with the Man, he still has one tin left, so I told him to set it aside for me. Be interested to see how that lines up against the BM, sounds like the same profile.


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Irfan said:


> Mark, a while back you recommended Escuado, yes? Just got off YM with the Man, he still has one tin left, so I told him to set it aside for me. Be interested to see how that lines up against the BM, sounds like the same profile.


Don't know about the BM, but Escudo is nothing like BMF, more along the lines of Reiner LGF or Orlik Golden Slices. Say the adult version of LNF? Whenever I buy any, it disappears. :ask:


----------

